The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Alumni of a Sri Lankan boys’ school gathered at the Franklin Food Bank headquarters on November 9 to pitch in to the effort of relieving food insecurity in the township.
The graduates of Ananda College – a Buddhist primary and secondary school located on the east coast of Sri Lanka – made a donation of $500, in time for the food bank’s gear-up for the holiday season.
Saliya Desilva, a member of the association, said the donation was to commemorate the college’s Founder’s Day.
“Annually we commemorate our Founders Day, and actually one of our founders, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, he’s a native of New Jersey,” Desilva said. “So we make a donation to a shelter or a food bank or something like that.”
Desilva said they were steered to the food bank by Township Councilman Ram Anbarasan (D-At Large).
Food Bank Executive Director Derek Smith said the organization was “grateful” for the donation.
“It means the world that you would think about the Franklin Food Bank to support us with this donation,” he said. “We’re very, very grateful, and you will always be welcome here at the Franklin Food Bank.”
“We are not able to do the work that we do without the incredible support of people in Franklin Township,” Smith said. “People support us by bringing food as a donation. People support us by donating their time … and people support us through financial donation.”
“So that’s why to me it’s very telling or very apropos, as they would say, to have you here as alums because we believe in a very optimistic approach to not food insecurity but to food security,” he said. “That’s what we focus on. We’re very blessed to serve and we do that because we know that helping people in this community is going to help to change their lives. And we do that by increasing access to food in the community.”
